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Population study: followed a group

Study of 13,223 adults: no clear link between steps and heart disease or death

Alver and colleagues · JAMA network open · 2024

Original title: Physical Activity, Cardiovascular Status, Mortality, and Prediabetes in Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Adults.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

No difference

Steps under 7000 vs 7000 or more had HR 1.58 for normal blood sugar and 1.08 for prediabetes, neither clear. Main result was about hard activity time.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Population study: followed a group
Who or what was studied
13,223 people · Hispanic and non-Hispanic adults with or without prediabetes
What was tested
Linked activity levels (including steps) to heart disease or death, whichever came first
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Who has a stake
Company stake
Authors report fees from Fukuda Denshi, Kowa and RhythmX AI, and a Novo Nordisk grant.
Journal
JAMA network open, 2024
Source
PubMed record 38842811. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
  • ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
  • ✓Large: 13,223 people.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • –Company stake: Authors report fees from Fukuda Denshi, Kowa and RhythmX AI, and a Novo Nordisk grant.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: death from any cause

    0

    Not done yet. This is the step that would answer the question.

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    10

    9 benefit, 1 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “How many steps a day lower the risk of early death?”

About 6,000 to 10,000 steps; fewer if older.

Confidence: low. Based on 17 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 9 papers on the same step: 9 benefit. This one found no difference. It differs from most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 17 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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